No One and Someone
by Amber Magic
Summary: "I hear I'm to call you Lord Baratheon now." She says with a nervous grin. He raises his eyes to hers and she knows immediately she's chosen the wrong words. An Arya/Gendry reunion drabble.


She comes as soon as she hears, rushing through camp as quickly as she can. She doesn't find him in the forge, but in his tent, cradling his head in his soot covered hands.

"I hear I'm to call you Lord Baratheon now." She says with a nervous grin.

He raises his eyes to hers and she knows immediately she's chosen the wrong words. She remembers as a child thinking _Gendry is strong_. She had meant that he could wield a hammer like no other, but he was strong in other ways. When other men broke down after taking a man's life, Gendry said a silent prayer and moved on. Where other men fought over whores and copper pieces, Gendry saved his rage for things that mattered. She had never seen Gendry weep, never seen him flinch against the flames in the forge. _Gendry is strong_.

But when he looks up at her, it is terror that she sees in his blue eyes. He doesn't look like the strong bull she knows, but a wounded stag.

"Don't call me that." His voice is barely above a whisper.

"Gendry…" she begins, but he doesn't let her finish.

"Brienne tells me I look just like Renly. Melisandre tells me I look like Stannis. Apparently I'm King Robert's spitting image. I'm someone else. I'm no one."

Arya sucks in a breath. "No. I've seen all three of those men, and you are not them. You are Ser Gendry Waters, one of the best blacksmiths in Westeros. You are a knight of the Brotherhood Without Banners. When I _was_ no one, you made me remember myself." She kneels before him, landing heavy on the dirt floor, taking his hands in hers. They have matching calluses, she notes with a small smile.

"I can't do this. I can't lead men into battle under a stag flag."

"You already lead them into battle. What does the flag matter?"

"Gods, Arya. What do I do?"

"We keep going. We keep fighting until we take back Winterfell and all that is ours. I have been Arya Horseface, Arry, Weasel, Nymeria, Cat of the Canals, Beth, and a hundred other names. None of them matter. I have been a lady and a princess. The titles don't matter."

His blue eyes meet her grey ones. "If my name doesn't matter then what does?"

Arya presses her lips to his. "This."

They've done this once before, after they had both had too much wine and been giddy with victory. She remembers sloppy kisses and fumbling hands, but not much else after they had both passed out on the mead soaked floor. But those hazy kisses were nothing compared to the clarity of his mouth now, the feel of his fingers tangled in her hair.

He responds tentatively at first, moving his lips gently against hers. He cradles her head in his hands, gentle but firm, the way she grips Needle. What begins as gentle quickly becomes desperate. He pulls her up from the ground and into his lap, shifting her as close as possible. She understands. He is the only thing that anchors her to this world too.

His lips are hot against her neck and she moans into his bare shoulder.

"What are we doing, Arya?"

She grinds down into him, smiling at his subsequent groan. "I'm reminding you that you are just a man." She kisses him softly. "And that I will be here no mater what." She kisses him again.

"We could always run away. Live above a Braavosi forge."

She looks him in the eyes and sees his smile. "Stupid bull. You know we don't run away from the things that scare us. We run towards them."

"I suppose I have to… avenge my father's murder, or whatever it is that motivates these noble wars."

"That's the spirit! Being from a noble house means hundreds of years of things to be pissed off about."

"Ours is the fury," he says, testing the words as though they were a foreign Braavosi saying.

"And winter is coming," she says softly. "Anger can keep you warm though."

"I can think of something more fun that can keep us warm," he mutters against her neck, nipping lightly.

"Stupid, stupid bull," she sighs, shoving him back and silencing him with a kiss.


End file.
